D.A. Craig Watkins must address towing allegations, the “swift boat” campaign is on

Either they did or they didn’t, it’s as simple as that. Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins office either knew about allegations of wrongdoing in Jamie Cortes’ Constable Precint 5 back in 2008 or the claims are unfounded. The D.A.’s office needs to pause from its normal wait and see course and address the charges being levied against them.

At one time Watkins’, called “hug-a-thug”, by his foes was maligned for being soft on crime. Now that he has delivered a high prosecution rate to Dallas County residents, the speed at which he does so has now become the issue. Granted, the line between deliberate and derelict is pretty clear, but to date the D.A. has yet to prove that he is unable to carry out his duties.

But one thing is certain, Dallas County Democrats as a whole need to be much more vocal regarding corruption. They have been totally silent about ALL CORRUPTION CASES, even those that have been proven in a court of law. They -the Democrats- have been loyal to a fault, and the fault will be theirs if it costs them at the polls in November.

It’s unfortunate that Watkins’ is the Democratic torch bearer and that Dallas Democrats continue to ride on his coat tails. His position should be as nonpartisan as possible. He should focus on his opponent versus his party. But Republicans’ are smelling blood in the water. Republican candidate for Dallas County Judge Wade Emmert has referred to the auditor’s claim as a “smoking gun” on his Twitter feed.

John Kerry provides the model of how not to handle the situation. Kerry thought truth (as he saw it) was enough. But sadly, in these highly politicized times appearances and innuendo can distract from facts. The D.A. should be wary of appearing to show favoritism or ignoring a tip, even if it’s not the case.

I understand and have respected Watkins’ decision not to talk about investigations, he’s stuck true to that for some time. And often if you wait long enough, the news cycle will move on to something else anyway. But right now there aren’t a lot of distractions out there. The City Council gets along and the mayor isn’t calling the police chief an idiot. All eyes are focused on the constable inquiry.

While the D.A.’s ultimate job is to dispense justice he has shown himself adept at the P.R. game as well. I think Watkins would benefit from getting out front on the issue of corruption and giving more details what has happened so far. If he doesn’t his opponents will be more than willing to do so for him.

It’s one thing to not talk about investigations. There are no indications that he’s even pursuing investigations on anyone in the police department or his own party. That’s the problem.

Two things are pretty obvious right now:

1) Cortes is scum, using his elected office and badge to persecute poor people on traffic violations to fill his own pockets with kickbacks and to give stolen cars to his own employees / coconspirators, and

2) Watkins is giving him a pass on it.

That’s inexcusable.

SouthDallasDemocrat

Look, as a Democrat I understand one thing – Watkins is corrupt. He is not someone we can tie our fortunes to. He has had ethical lapses on more than one occasion, his wife is a consultant who uses shakedown tactics to get business, and this is just part of the West/Wiley Price machine. Price has told municipal candidates that either they support their person or they will never get elected. It’s a sad day to be a Democrat in Dallas right now.

http://www.dallassouthnews.org shawnpwilliams

Apparently the answer is….”they did.”

http://phelps.donotremove.net Phelps

Price isn’t the only Dem game in town. Don’t forget that none of this would have been exposed if it wasn’t for Judge Foster.